Rauner campaign touts rating from activist who said Lincoln fought Civil War over taxes, not slavery

Seth Perlman / AP

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner participates in ceremonies honoring former President Abraham Lincoln in celebration of Lincoln's birthday at the Tomb of President Lincoln on Feb. 12, 2015, in Springfield, Ill.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner participates in ceremonies honoring former President Abraham Lincoln in celebration of Lincoln's birthday at the Tomb of President Lincoln on Feb. 12, 2015, in Springfield, Ill. (Seth Perlman / AP)

Bruce Rauner may be the governor of the “Land of Lincoln,” but he’s promoting kudos from a group led by a self-styled taxpayer watchdog who contends Abraham Lincoln fought the Civil War to keep collecting taxes from Southern states, not over the issue of slavery.

On Wednesday, Rauner’s campaign Twitter account noted the governor had “been graded 92 percent in taxpayer friendliness, because as governor, I'm the biggest advocate for taxpayers. I won't stop fighting to protect Illinoisans from more tax hikes.”

The tweet featured a link to Rauner’s campaign website containing a portion of a report from the Illinois News Network, which is an arm of the Illinois Policy Institute, a libertarian-to-conservative think tank. The report touted ratings of governor candidates from the Taxpayers United of America, a Chicago-based group headed by James Tobin.

Tobin also serves as president of the Taxpayer Education Foundation, which describes itself as a tax-exempt organization “conducting research on facts, methods and principles of taxation, government spending and public attitudes on these subjects.” The foundation and Taxpayers United share the same address.

Tobin’s foundation features several posts critical of Lincoln with such titles as “Lincoln brutalized the country and shredded the constitution,” “Illinois and Lincoln set the bar for political sleaze” and “Lincoln’s unpopular war.”

“Slavery was not the reason for the War Between the States,” says the post on Lincoln shredding the Constitution, which was updated in 2015.

“Lincoln wanted to prevent secession at whatever cost because his primary goal was retaining the tax revenue from the Southern States,” the document says. It added, “Slaves were not important to Lincoln except as propaganda.”

After the Tribune asked the Rauner campaign for comment, the Wednesday tweet promoting Rauner’s ranking by Tobin’s Taxpayers United was removed from Twitter.

Those posts took a shot at the governor’s political nemesis, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan: “Taxpayers United of America has graded me at 92 percent in taxpayer friendliness. I want to improve on that by blocking more Madigan tax hikes so Illinoisans can keep more of their hard-earned paychecks.”

The Tribune asked the Rauner campaign for comment about its promotion of Tobin as part of the governor’s re-election. A Rauner campaign spokesman sent a statement: “The Chicago Tribune, as well as other respected news sources, have cited Jim Tobin and the Taxpayers United of America several times.” Five Tribune stories were about transportation and school issues.

Tobin ran as the Libertarian lieutenant governor candidate in 2002 on a ticket that got 2.1 percent of the vote. Four years earlier, Tobin had sought the governor’s office as a Libertarian, but his ticket was removed from the ballot because of a lack of valid petition signatures. Tobin could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Illinois Policy Institute affiliate organization that was the outlet for the report on Tobin’s grading of politicians has received funding by Rauner. Last summer, Rauner replaced top staff with institute officials, many of whom were let go weeks later.

Rauner’s campaign did leave off one detail from the report — Tobin graded state Rep. Jeanne Ives with a tax friendliness score of 100 percent. Ives, a three-term lawmaker from Wheaton, is planning to challenge Rauner in the March GOP primary.